Staff MemberPremium Member

One of the slickest new features included in Android 5.0 Lollipop isn't really new at all. In fact, it is obviously inspired by something that the Moto X could already do. The feature is called Ambient Display and it is basically just a fresh version of the sleep screen from the Moto X.

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Basically, with the Moto X, the sleep screen will pulse when the device is asleep. This pulse displays the time, notifications for messages, emails, missed calls and more. Ambient Display mimics this concept and will be included in the Nexus 6. Reports indicate it will also show up in all versions of Android 5.0 once that starts pushing out OTA.

Premium Member

I would LOVE to see them supporting older devices and bringing them out of the dark ages and into the Lollipop! With it being able to run on less RAM (512Mb), and beign so transportable, it would be a boon for Google and Android overall. Taking everyone with older phones and putting them all on the same playing field with flagship devices in Android would CLOBBER iOS because there would finally be continuity from one device to another - something that Apple iPhone owners have enjoyed for years and one of the few things that has hindered the growth and world-wide acceptance of Android.

Staff Member

The same could be said when Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich JellyBean & KitKat was released. "It'll work great on all these devices" they said.....then reality set in. Do you guys not remember any of this the past two years? LOL

I'm not sure I am following how Android has been hindered world wide. Don't they have somewhere near 80-85 percent market share?

There aren't any monetary incentives for telcos to pay a team of people to update those aging phones. That is why it won't happen. Jellybean, Kitkat, and now Lolipop were all designed by Google to kill fragmentation. When Google rolled over on its back by letting carriers continue to not update phones they switched to something the carriers couldn't control...Play Services.

I would LOVE to see them supporting older devices and bringing them out of the dark ages and into the Lollipop! With it being able to run on less RAM (512Mb), and beign so transportable, it would be a boon for Google and Android overall. Taking everyone with older phones and putting them all on the same playing field with flagship devices in Android would CLOBBER iOS because there would finally be continuity from one device to another - something that Apple iPhone owners have enjoyed for years and one of the few things that has hindered the growth and world-wide acceptance of Android.

This could get really interesting.

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If Google could have it their way many of the past OS updates would be rolled out to any device that could physically run the software. You have the carriers and OEMs to blame for the older devices that don't get updated.

Omg guys... Oems have to add their skins to the new OS. It has nothing to do with being locked, Google or anything else. Also ICS couldn't run on 512mb so that's why those devices lost support. If the OEMs didn't add their stupid skins all devices would be updated to the new OS like Nexus devices.

Staff Member

The fact is, it's not in their (manufacturers) best interest to push this to older devices, regardless of whether it will run smoothly on said device or not. It takes money out of their pocket by, in essence, making upgrading to a newer device much less attractive, especially for those who are on a budget. Manufacturers are more concerned with the bottom line....for that reason alone, I don't see it happening.